


The Final Frontier

by Priori_Incanfandom



Category: Firefly
Genre: Deep space, Mal and his God complex, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 23:38:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1204741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Priori_Incanfandom/pseuds/Priori_Incanfandom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mal and the crew are in deep space, well past the arm of alliance and any form of civilisation when they happen upon a goldmine. However a hold full scrap isn't all they find in the irradiated glow of a dying star.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Despite the title, this is NOT a crossover fic. Pure Firefly, what could be better?

A low nasal whistling sounded throughout the cabin, solidifying into the sound of interference on the com system, causing the woman at the controls to start awake, hurriedly checking the control panel for any faults that could be causing the interruption to her nap. She grabbed a small communicator from the desktop "Captain to the bridge, your beloved rust bucket needs duct taping together again." The communicator was no sooner in the holder than the door to the cabin hissed open.

 

"Good evening, glorious commander" She teased, too busy hitting the control panel with a small hammer to turn and greet him. "What's fallen off her this time?" he sighed irritably. "Nothing so far as I can tell. Landing gear in check, Solar panel diagnostic came back all clear, though it turns out they do need recalibrating … anyway, the com system is bust, I can't find nothing wrong with it but the noise won't stop."

 

"Has it occurred to you, Kaylee my dear, that someone may be trying to communicate with you through the communication system?" Mal asked in a pained tone "You know what captain. It just did. The signature doesn't match the internal system and we're in deep space. An’ there’s no haulers out here to end up in distress, why send a bird to empty space?" She said

 

"Same reason as us, scavenging?" he suggested "Sorry Mal, nothing in this quadrant at all" Kaylee shook her head "We've got an asteroid field seven clicks east but it's all organic matter, east twenty clicks though and you've got yourself a big old star about to go supernova" she grinned, widening the view of the scanner screen until it just showed the edges of the radiation field around the star.

 

"You know what I love about big old dying stars?" Mal grinned "Not a clue, Skipper" Zoe smirked indulgently as she appeared in the doorway. "Well girls, a lot of erratic solar flares result in changeable magnetic and gravitational fields. All of the scrap we're looking for is being pulled to one spot" he leaned over and tapped the pulsing light at the edge of the scanner "X marks the spot … turn her around, and for the love of Wǒ tā mā de lǐzhì mute that signal. Whatever it is, it ain’t our problem."

 

"Aye aye, Skipper." She chimed "That's captain to you, Kaylee" He reprimanded fondly as he left the bridge.  "Aye aye, Captain" She called after him. She quickly turned the ship, aiming for the white hot ball of gas and fire that flickered and erupted silently on the fringes of the monitor. With a few dials turned the insistent signal was halted abruptly and the star filter descended, leaving the cabin peaceful once more. The only noises were the distant hum of the engines, the muted murmurs of the crew beyond the door of the bridge compartment and the hypnotic, regular bleep of the scanner. Combined with the dull glow of the monitor and various buttons and controls, the small room was quite comfortable. Kaylee started to nod off again slowly, lulled by the knowledge they were on the trail again, another job, another 10 per cent in her pocket to plough into keeping the bird flying

 

. "Don't get too comfortable there, Wash'll go to all sorta lengths to keep his fancy chair" Zoe said. "Hm? Well if he wants it so much he shouldn'ta gone got food poisoning … It's my chair now." She asserted, Zoë had to laugh a little "Fine, then he gets your hammock in the engine room" She grinned, leaving Kaylee alone on the bridge. "I'd like to see him tryna get into it" She called as the door hissed shut "Just all kindsa mean, right girl?" She asked the ship's controls. They just hummed in response. "I know I can count on you, Serenity" She murmured, patting the console before curling up in Wash's chair again, watching the lights reflecting on Wash's dinosaurs and wondering how long she would get to fly her for before he recovered.


	2. Chapter 2

"More noise! Why is there always so much gorran noise on this ship?"  Jayne, the Serenity’s mercenary in residence growled as alarms blared throughout the ship. In a moment of inanity, he aimed a gun at the closest alarm speaker "here's a thought" The captain yelled, slamming the gun to the table "Instead of drinking your cut, buy your own damn bird, or ear muffs" He smiled sarcastically as he left the canteen for the bridge again "Tell me something good, Grease monkey" He demanded of Kaylee as he reached the epicentre of the squealing alarm.  "The peripheral sensors are working, Sir. A little too well if you ask me" She called back; they had finally reached the fringes of the asteroid field that separated them from the haul at the other side. "There' no way you're getting her through that field any time soon, Captain. You'll have to take the shuttle through while I coax her across." She sighed “Wash could do it easy but he ain’t leavin’ the bunks no time soon.” She said, finally managing to silence the bird.

 

"Right, set it up for me" He said, turning to go. She smiled, "What's in it for me, Skip?" She asked. He laughed, "Your ten per cent, isn't that enough of an incentive?" she smiled and remotely fired up the life support in the shuttle, watching as another screen flickered to life. She hit it firmly and the picture became clearer as he muttered to herself “If a day goes by and anything woks I'll be amazed." Soon the Captain and Jayne were in the small shuttle so she hijacked their coms. "Seat belts on boys?" she asked buoyantly "Cos if the Captain dies, I get his ship" They both made a show of fastening themselves into the harnesses. "Hey, she may be old and rusty, but she's my old rusty." The captain warned. She laughed "Such a romantic, Captain, who knew? Prepare to disengage." She watched him wink at the camera as the shuttle's docking clamps retracted and they pulled away from the main ship. “You’ll have to fight Zoë for her though kid, I don’t like your chances.” He smiled as Jayne assumed the controls in the shuttle “Me neither captain, me neither.” He shut off the coms as they left the ship behind.

 

Mal shook his head as they followed the edge of the asteroid field "Why did I hire her again?" He asked. "She's the best mechanic I ever saw" Jayne said. "We picked you up on the most devolved hunk of rock I ever saw, I'm amazed it was even terraformed, I don't think you're a great judge of technology or the skill to use it" The captain said. Jayne shrugged "Maybe, but look at me now. I'm flyin’ a shuttle through asteroid city" Jayne looked out at the shifting mass of pitted rocks, floating far too gracefully for objects of their size and danger. "I'm regretting the decision of letting you drive immensely, don't you worry." He said.

 

"She's gonna have to be the best to get my ship through there in one piece" Mal said, glancing back at the ship wistfully. As much as they all teased, she was a thing of beauty despite her flaws. The first and last cargo hauler to be designed with any manner of aesthetics in mind. The main body of the ship was the cargo deck; a large vault like structure with air tight doors leading to the crew quarters. Some enterprising young thing had discovered that removing all the air in the cargo meant zero gravity, therefore less weight slowing her down. Beyond the dull silver belly was a flight of stairs running up the neck of the ship, they led to the crew bunks above the cargo and further up the bridge, kitchen and common rooms. As he watched the two great engines on the sides of the cargo swivelled to propel it down. "Don't you worry, Cap'n" Jayne interrupted his reverie "She got a way with that beast, she hears it. If anyone's flying her through in one piece, it's Kaylee" Mal sighed “She ain’t no pilot, she knows engines. Wash could get her through ...”

 

They soon found a capillary of space between the shifting rocks that the shuttle was small enough to navigate. The boulders were ceaseless in their rotation, blocking passages or baring down on them suddenly. They were roughly half way through this shifting, three dimensional labyrinth when the com system started whining intermittently. "Is that Kaylee?" Jayne asked but the captain shook his head "No, we heard this earlier in the bridge, you keep your eyes on the road" he nodded as he reached up to work at the overhead controls. The signal soon solidified, resolving itself into a series of differing bleeps. "Is that?" he asked and Jayne nodded enthusiastically "That there’s Morse. The Ancients on Old Earth That Was invented it. My grandpa told us stories about it as kids" Mal frowned. "So who would be using a virtually extinct code? And who is there out here to send it?"

 

"Er, Cap'n?" Jayne said, interrupting him. "What is it" Mal asked "You got eyes on the haul?"

"No, sir. I think I got eyes on What’s sending the signal, and I think I know what they're asking for" He said quietly "SOS" He pointed  at a large asteroid astray from the pack "Is that … Is that terraformed, cap’n? It can’t be" He said blankly "That's a settlement, not very big, but it’s there. Right in the path of a dying star” Mal said, increasing the size of it on the monitor. “Anyone on that thing should have shipped out months ago. It has to be an existing signal” The captain said “Maybe they left without tradable stuff” Jayne said hopefully. “Yeah, we’ll check it out” He agreed, hailing Serenity on the com “Hey Kaylee. We fund something worth a look around so we’re gonna put down” He said. “Put down where, Mal? It’s all just rock” Kaylee agued. “I’m hailing you with the coordinates, bring her around and we’ll dock with you and put down together. "On our way, Mal" Kaylee responded, killing the coms.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mystery of the asteroid is unearthed ...

It wasn’t too much later when the ship was touching down on the surface of the asteroid, great plumes of dust billowing up around her as the landing gear groaned under the stress of the ship’s weight. From the cabin a few ramshackle huts could be seen as well as ground that looked ploughed despite being dry and barren. “You think there’s anyone out there?” Jayne asked, peering at the eerie dystopian scene over Mal’s shouder.

“Someone must have sent the signal but we might be too late” Mal said “Jayne, we’re goin’ for a scout – no grenades.”

“You’ll regret that when we’re out there.” He grumbled as they all stood, heading through the ship, hitting the controls to open the hold door. They strode out, looking around cautiously, Jayne going ahead, a pulsar drawn as he slipped into a shack “Zoe, take his six” Mal ordered.

 

They soon found themselves in a circle of huts; at the heart of the circle were the remnants of a fire pit “Looks fairly uninhabited.” Jayne said, lowering his weapon. “Maybe they died.”

“Then where are the bodies?”

“Maybe they got picked up months ago an’ forgot to kill the signal?”

“Maybe there was never anyone on this thing? It could have just been an Alliance test. If someone developed a way to successfully make asteroids habitable … there’d be a development boom that would revolutionise everything.”

“And make a helluva lot of cash.”

Everyone was talking, their voices rising as they argued but Mal was straying from the group, crouching by the charred wood of the fire, reaching out to touch it. Everyone fell silent to watch. “Still hot” He observed, crumbing of a piece of wood between his fingers. Someone had been here recently and had thrown something over the fire to kill it.

 

“Nobody move.” A cold voice said, followed by the click of a pistol’s safety catch being removed. “Mal…” Zoe said slowly. He shook his head very slightly and both she and Jayne raised their hands away from the holsters at their hips over their heads. Mal dropped the firewood, interlacing his fingers behind his head as he slowly rose to his feet.

“You sent out an S.O.S. … An odd way to greet the only ship this side o’ the ‘Verse” He said slowly, looking at the gunman. He was at the strange stage between a boy and a man, his age further obscured by the paleness of his skin, the sallowness of a long illness. It rested in his eyes too; a hopelessness that Mal hadn’t seen since shell shock in the trenches that scarred Serenity Valley.

 

“No talking unless we talks to you first” The boy said. “That your ship?” Mal nodded. “If we raid that ship, will we find anyone else?”

“The pilot sick in his bunks and a girl sedated and strapped up in the infirmary, sick with who knows what. I suggest you don’t wake her, you’ll have hell on your hands.” He glanced at Simon, knuckles white in his clenched fists.

 

“Take him to da” a girl behind him said. “They got a ship Davey. You gotta take ‘em to da” The boy glared at her but nodded curtly. The girl started walking off to one hut apart from the rest of the circle. The boy/ man, Davey, motioned with the gun for them to follow and brought up the rear himself with his gun held high. “Bet you’re hankerin’ for a grenade or two now Cap’n” Jayne muttered.

“I said no talkin’!” The boy snapped and they both raised their hands over their heads again. The girl knocked and slipped inside the shack. Muffled voices could be heard inside before she came out again. “Go on in” She mumbled, stepping aside.

 

They filed into the small hut, the siblings waiting outside. Inside the hut seemed just as dusty as out on the surface of the asteroid. There were very few items in the single room, just a bed a wardrobe and a faded armchair, all of which had seen better days. In the threadbare arm chair sat a haggard man who would have had a strong resemblance to the girl, his daughter, if his eyes would have been as drawn as hers. Mal wagered him at 40 years or more but his face had seen harder times than his age permitted.

 

“The name’s Solomon. I’m assuming that you’re the captain here” he said, looking to Mal knowingly as he gestured at the crew.

“Just as much as I know you’re the king of this little rock, Sir. What I want to know is how you ended up just a driftin’ ‘round a burning star when you got a family out here.”

Solomon sighed heavily, contemplating the man in front of him. “What’s your name, Soldier?” He asked

“Malcolm Reynolds, Sir. Though I’m a Captain, not a soldier, not anymore”

“You’re always a soldier, lad. Another crew against the Alliance … Tellin’ you couldn’t do us no harm I guess. I got in a little trouble with the Alliance. Smugglers always get caught sooner or later. Anyways, I thought we were done for, there was talk of making an example of us, make a statement.  They gave me a choice. Either my whole crew went to jail for life, kinds an’ all; or they requisition my ship and we take part in an experiment for them. We were told they were terraforming a distant moon and they were looking for a few families to colonise it. We were told that there would be a few hard years but we’d be stable and self-sufficient in no more than three.” Solomon paused and looked up as a cup of tea was handed to him by his daughter and she left again. He took a long sip. “We chose the ‘rehabilitation’ they called it, they treated it like some God sent redemption, absolution of the sins of our past. We were treated like the aristocracy before they left us here. The Alliance organised a drop off for us, they were very accommodating so far as we could see. They helped us set up the water tower and the houses. They even gave us free seeds and food, a few animals before they left. Anyway, when they left, the gravity clamps on their ship left with them. Turns out our little moon of Pséma is an asteroid. A few hours after they left we broke orbit of the planet they had us anchored to. We’ve been drifting since.”

 

“Why didn’t you leave while you were in range of civilisation?” Zoe asked, folding her arms as she listened.

“We didn’t have our craft anymore. Besides, some still thought it was a misunderstanding and that the Alliance would notice an’ come save us. Some thought it was act of god …” Solomon sighed “Them’s the folk who didn’t live too long. There ain’t no god this side of the verse.”

 

“So how did you feed your people? Your livestock?” And what about medication?” Simon questioned, pacing the small shack.

“Well our exposure to sunlight’s been pretty damn erratic so we can’t get nothing to grow out here. Then we couldn’t feed the animals so we took whatever we could from ‘em and killed ‘em. Salted up the meat to try an’ keep us going a little longer. All we have left is what the Alliance gave us the day they dumped us on this Tā mā de yáogǔn. Medicine? Son we ain’t had any medicine since we signed up for this journey. We lost one to infection, and two so far to the radiation, including a baby. We’ve all got radiation poisoning to some degree, occupational hazard of circling a dying star for six months.”

“Six months? How long have you been diftin’ for?” Kaylee asked

“A year, maybe a year and a half? We don’t really know; days here are shorter. It’s hard to keep track” He said.

 

Eventually Mal spoke “So what’re you going to do?”

“Nothing much we can do, captain Reynolds. I recon we only have a few days before our radiation filters blow. If the atmospheric synthesiser holds that long, that is.”

“If that synthesiser blows …” Simon said slowly, knowing that they’d suffocate before they could burn to death, that every part of them would implode.

“Well then a little radiation poisonin’ ain’t gonna matter much” Jayne said “How long has that thing got?”

“Long enough for you to get back in your ship an’ fly as far as you can. Solar flares are gettin’ pretty damn erratic too. If you get your chance to take off between ‘em, you don’t hesitate Captain. There’s too many of us to save an’ we ain’t your crew. We ain’t your problem; we clear?”

“Crystal, Sir” Mal nodded.

 

“Well if your crew’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go tease a few more hours outta the machinery.” He nodded, getting slowly to his feet. Mal nodded and leaned back against the shack wall as he left, feeling eyes on him. “We can’t” He said at last.

“We can’t just leave them here, Captain” Kaylee said “We ain’t leavin’ them, right Zoe?” She asked, looking around.

“If we leave them here we’re no better than the Alliance.” She shrugged

“Zoe!” Mal sighed. He had been relying on her. “You know as well as I do we’d all be dead before we hit civilisation. We ain’t got the air supply, the food or the fuel to carry these people someplace safe. Solomon knows it too.”

“We oughtta try. I could rig the air supply just to fill the bridge and the cabins; it’d give us more time than if it were pumpin’ through the hold. It’d make us lighter so we’d use less fuel up too. They could bring their equipment and transfer the fuel, give us another boost. All we need is enough to get back into the Alliance patrol and we could send out a distress flare, we’d get picked up, Cap’n. If they didn’t wanna be saved why send the S.O.S” Kaylee enthused.

“Kaylee, it would take all the supplies we have to get half way to the Alliance with all of those passengers, even if it wouldn’t … they’re very ill. Some wouldn’t make the journey, Solomon knows that. There’s no point in condemning us too, they’re too far gone.” Simon said, going to put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it off, then she was up on her feet and storming away. “Kaylee, come back!” he called, going to follow her. “Where’s she going?” Simon asked Mal, looking back at him.

“She’ll be finding an engine to fix … calm herself down before we leave. If fixing up their machinery makes her feel better about what we’re about to do then let her … You got patients to see, Doctor.” Mal said “Soothe your conscience.”

 

Simon nodded, heading back to the ship for his medical kit, followed by Jayne, who looked thoroughly uncertain as to where he stood on the issue. Just Mal and Zoe remained in the shack. “What are you going to do to clear your conscience, Sir?” She asked, eyebrows raised.

“I’m leaving a whole village to die out here, smugglers like us, and you think there’s a thing I can do to make that feel any better? We fought a war to make sure this never happened, Zoe. We fought a war to be better” He said, scrubbing his face with his hands. He looked so weary.

“Then be better, Sir. Think it over” She stood, heading back to Serenity, leaving him with his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One or two more chapters to go, what do you think Mal will do?
> 
> Let me know what you thought
> 
> L


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter of The Final Frontier.

Sometime later Mal wandered out of the hut, surprised to find the pale boy there still "Evenin' Davey, where's your friend?"

"She's my sister. Your doctor is giving her a shot, dunno what good it'd do." He said, nodding over to them, framed in a doorway of the hut Simon was working in before looking down. "You got a ship Sir. I ain't gonna let you leave without Elsa. She don't deserve to die here." He said solemnly.

"I reckon there ain't anyone here who deserves it David. It's just The Alliance playin' their games."

"It ain't bout the game, Sir or even who deserves to be where. It's about survivin'."

 

Mal lapsed into thought. "I'm gonna try to help you, kid" he said quietly. I just need a little time to figure out how … We're runnin’, mighty low on just about everythin' we need to get out. When's nightfall?"

"About twenty minutes, Sir" The boy grinned, a daring hope in his eyes.

"Alright. Go round up my crew for me an’ tell 'em to get their hides on my ship. We'll figure something out during the night.”

"Yes, Captain Reynolds, thank you." The boy turned to leave, starting to jog off towards Simon, the closest of the crew but Mal called to him. "Hey kid. How old are you. Elsa's fourteen sir, an' I'm nearly eighteen"

"That'll be seventeen then" Mal waved, turning to make his way back to Serenity.

 

 

A while later Kaylee bolted onto the ship, looking frantically for Mal. "You changed your mind!" She crowed, launching herself at him. He chuckled and pulled her into a hug, watching the others board in her wake, avoiding Zoe's eye. He pulled back once the others reached them.  "Here's the plan. There ain't a break in the solar flares long enough for us to leave till tomorrow afternoon, so you all might as well get some food at hit the sack. I'll wake you in a few hours to start getting the boat ready for passengers."

"You sure that'll be enough time, Captain? I'm sure we'd all be happy to start now" Simon frowned.

"I've got it under control, Doc. Check on your sister, Zoe, go see to our pilot. We can do this, just."

"Thank you Captain" Kaylee smiled, pecking his cheek as she went past him.

 

Slowly they all filtered past him in different directions. Kaylee went to the engine room to put her on auxiliary only, hoping to get few more hours out of her later. The while ship became dark, only lit by a few emergency strobe lights and solar glare sticks, giving a stark, harsh light to the ship. Simon went to the infirmary to check on River who was still lying utterly motionless in her chemically induced coma. Jayne went to lock up the hold doors whilst Zoe was the only one going straight to her bunk.

 

Mal realised only he and Jayne were left. You really think they'd break in on us in bed?" He asked, eyeing the fortifications. "Desperate folk do desperate things Cap'n" he shrugged "Shuttin' them out won’t do 'em no harm an’ anyways, it keeps all the good air in. I ain't dyin' for no one. Not by runnin' outta air in deep space or by breathin' in the radiation in their air" he said firmly. "Good thinking" mal said, watching him closely "get to your bunk, we got work to do in the morning" Jayne nodded, heading to his room.

 

Mal however went to the bridge, watching red lights appear on the console one by one as the crew closed their bunk doors for the night. Once he was sure they were all asleep he flicked a switch, overriding the individual units of the door controls and dead bolting them all. Had the crew been awake, they would have heard the hollow clicks. He killed their coms too so they couldn't wake one another.

 

After another moment’s contemplation at the controls he nodded and stood, leaving the bridge. The hissing of the closing door and his footsteps as he went down the metal steps seemed too loud, like it would wake the crew as he passed their rooms. He paced through the living area, past the kitchen and the long table, pausing when he reached the hold. A cold clanging noise was carried through the ship on the thin air thrown out by the emergency power. He froze. It sounded like it was coming from the passenger cabins or the infirmary. He waited a moment longer, gun drawn. When no sound followed but the weak engine hum he holstered it, silently moving to the engine room. He circled the slowly rotating engine, spotting the lever Kaylee had used to shut down the power and forcing it back on. He straightened up again.

 

"They'll be stars in the morning. What would the lady say?" Mal jumped, spinning around to see River looking at him closely.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   "You mean like angels? I don't much care for the sugar coated fairy tales that preachers peddle."

"No, not angels, tiny stars. They'll boil and burn away until they're just little smouldering spheres of gas in space. Their souls will fly away. What would the lady say?"

"We'll not so sugar coated then, little crazy." He swallowed "what lady?"

"What would the lady say?"

"Inara?" He frowned.   River nodded

"She's on a job the last place we landed. No one will ever talk about this once it's done, they won’t ever be able to bring themselves to ... No one will tell her. "

 

She slowly tipped her head to the side, watching mal. "Can I see the stars?" She asked.

"No, I gotta special job for you ... I need you to head back to the infirmary and stay real quiet, okay?" she shook her head

“I’m taking Simon to see the stars.” She smiled vaguely.

“Alright … I’ll take you to Simon but we gotta go to the infirmary first.” He soothed, ushering her out of the engine room and locking the door. He knew the noise would wake Kaylee soon; he didn’t have time to be part of a hallucination.

 

He soon had her dosed up in the infirmary again, covered in scratches along his arms and face as a reward. He paused at the door of the corridor leading to the bridge. Kaylee was yelling, hitting something against her walls. With each room he walked past, it seemed as though the occupant woke for his presence. They were all realising that something was wrong. When Mal reached the bridge he brought the coms to life and picked up the receiver.

 

“No matter what we did, we wouldn’t reach The Alliance, another boat or civilisation before we ran out of air. If we took them on, we wouldn’t get 50 clicks from the asteroid with anymore folk on board. I ain’t turnin’ round and I ain’t lettin’ you out of your bunks for a good long while yet so buckle up.”

 

 

 

 

"That's sixty clicks" Mal said quietly. He had let them all out of their cabins after 40 clicks and had had to have Jayne hold Kaylee down for at least another three before she promised not to sabotage the engine’s workings.

"Just wait a little longer" Kaylee insisted just as quietly. Silence took the cabin again. The captain sighed "The life support would have cut out by now; the extra weight would have left us out of gas. We'd have been out of food hours ago. We haven't passed a single bird; there would have been no one to help us. None of us would have made it" He sighed.  She looked up

"I could have found a way to save them."

 

"We would always end up here, out of air and out of time, no matter what you did. Saving them was suicide." He tried to soothe her, looking at the rest of the crew, all of them sitting around the cabin tensely.

"I reckon we should have tried, Cap'n" Jayne said after a pause.

"You, who kills people for money? You think we should have saved that colony that you said you weren’t dyin’ for?" He demanded

"I only kills the people you tell me too, and I do it fast. I ain't never left kids to burn at the edge of the gorram verse.  We've been in tighter times and pulled through, trying and not getting outta this one … Well, it would be better that sneaking away in the night." He protested. The Zoe had been sitting apart from the rest as she listened. "All those children; all those families. They'll have woken up, waited for us to come back. How long do you think it took before they believed it? Before they believed that that charming captain and his crew would just take off and left them to the star."

 

"Longer than it took me to make my choice. I made it in that hut, Simon was patching up that kid and I knew then that it was pointless. I was going to leave her behind on that rock. She never chose to be there, her parents walked onto that terraformed wasteland when they were young. They knew the risks of setting so close to an old star. They made their choice without thinking about their families. I won't be apologising for avoiding that mistake. I pulled you all aboard this bird for different reasons. They may not have been kind reasons, they were selfish and opportunistic and you were what I needed to get in the air. With all that in mind, I'm sure as hell that not one of you is dying on this boat. I'm not sacrificing my family."

 

"So you can play God? The great and mighty captain of Serenity. The famous Malcolm Reynolds. We should have seen this coming. You're a joke, worse you're a murderer. You condemned them to die and you expect me to be grateful for that just because it means I can run on your excuse for a bird, carry on looking the other way while you pretend to be the criminal mastermind that keeps The Alliance on their toes?" Simon said, glaring coldly.

 

"You wanna go back to dragging your crazy sister around under the nose of The Alliance again, Doc? See how long it takes for them to lock her up again." He snapped. Simon's eyes narrowed "Whether you like it or not my crew are my responsibility. They're as close to a damn family as any of us got. What happened today was my choice, just mine. I left those people knowing exactly what was going to happen to everyone of them. If you think I don’t realise that then look me in the eye and say it. The first sign of civilisation we get to you can leave. I won't stop you. If you can't live on this ship then fly yourself home."

 

The cabin was still as Kaylee looked into her captain's eyes "They were too young to die" She said gently. He nodded "So are you." With that she walked the short distance to the controls, running her hand over them with a trained familiarity. "So, you goin' home?" Jayne asked, breaking some tension of the argument. "Yeah." she said softly "But the Captain needs me to fly her, not lay about by the engines."  With a curt nod he stood, opening the cabin door. One by one the crew filed out past him as she sank into the battered leather of the chair, looking over the lights and dials.

 

When they were alone he opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off "Yeah I know. Land her gentle, she'll do the rest." She said, reaching up over her head to turn the volume of the coms system back up, the distress signal crackling incoherently again, filling the cabin once more. She leaned back into the chair, heading for the closest major system she could find. She didn't know how many clicks the captain stood behind her console for, but when the signal started to fade he was beside her, hand on her shoulder.  Even as the silence wore on they said nothing, just watching the stars pass, distant flares on the scanner's face.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you thought. I know that this was short but there'll be more chapters to follow soon.


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